Inorganic perovskite materials have attracted significant research effort given their rich physical properties that include high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, ferroelectricity, diverse magnetic properties, etc. Their structure has the general formula ABX3, where the cation B resides in the center of corner sharing BX6 octahedra, whereas cation A is surrounded by eight such octahedra (see, for example, SrTiO3, YMnO3, YVO3, and LaMnO3). The newest member of the perovskite family, namely the organic-inorganic perovskites, have recently emerged as an intriguing class of materials, which combine the low-cost processing and versatility characteristics of organic materials with the performance factors of inorganic compounds. For example, the power conversion efficiency of hybrid perovskite photovoltaic (PV) solar cells has exceeded 20%, and the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on these compounds rival the best on the market. In addition, hybrid perovskite semiconductors exhibit wavelength-tunable photoluminescence (PL), laser action and charge carrier diffusion lengths of the order of hundreds of micrometers. Surprisingly, these compounds also show interesting spin-related properties, including magneto-photocurrent, magneto-electroluminescence, and magneto-PL, in spite of their fast spin relaxation that is due to the strong spin-orbit coupling.
The most exciting breakthroughs of hybrid halide perovskites are without a doubt in the area of PV technologies, where the new records in power conversion efficiencies have been reported at an unprecedented pace; in few years from the first report, efficiency has improved by more than five times. However, hybrid halide perovskites have found limited relevance to electronic applications outside the PV arena. Despite the promising performance characteristics described above, hybrid halide perovskites can be sensitive to various environmental conditions leading to discontinuities in electronic structure, premature operational degradation and limited lifetimes.